The Rome Prophecy

78

Anna Fratelli can’t move her arms or legs.

As well as the chemical straitjacket of sedatives they’ve imposed upon her, she’s also pinned down with bed restraints.

Valducci is taking no chances. He’s reduced her to a state where she couldn’t even harm a proverbial fly if it settled on the tip of her nose, let alone injure herself again.

The Velcro fastenings on her wrists and ankles mean that her every waking moment is spent staring at the ceiling of the new high-security room they’ve moved her to.

Her only distraction is spotting the occasional movement of an overhead camera that records her 24/7.

Louisa Verdetti watches the camera feed with sadness.

She understands the need for the chemical restraints but thinks Valducci has overstepped the mark with the bonds.

So typical of him.

He selfishly jumps at any chance to show he’s in control and can dominate and intimidate.

She can see Anna’s lips moving but she can’t hear anything.

She fiddles with the audio control on the monitor, but all she gets is loud hiss.

Maybe Anna is silently mouthing the words to some prayer.

She turns the volume up to the max.

Nothing.

A deafening voice erupts through the speakers as the technical fault fixes itself.

By the time Louisa has turned it down and her eardrums have stopped banging, she’s missed the start of whatever is being said.

But it’s clear that it’s not Anna who’s talking.

It’s another alter.

The mean and powerful one that appeared when the cops were interviewing her.

‘Stupid girl! You disgrace us. Look at you lying there on your back, spread out like a cheap peasant whore about to pleasure the dimmest of farmers. You are not fit to be Cybeline.’

A weaker voice answers, ‘I’m sorry. Please, forgive me. It is not my fault that I am like this.’

Louisa feels like her heart is going to break. She was hoping Anna had put the trauma of simultaneous manifestations behind her.

Clearly not.

‘ Sorry? ’ The dominant alter stresses the word poisonously. ‘You do not have the right to even think about apologising to me. You are past that, child. You are lost to me.’

Louisa realises she’s wrong.

This is not just any alter. By the sound of it, this is the ultimate and most powerful one of them all. The Mother.

‘Lost, child! Do you hear me?’

‘No, please!’ Anna begs. ‘I have tried my best. I have done almost everything that you have asked of me.’

Louisa quickly pulls a small notepad from her white doctor’s coat and scribbles.

This moment could be key to unlocking the mysterious traumas that have messed with Anna’s mind.

‘Almost is not enough!’ The words are shouted out. ‘You have failed me. Failed all of us. Now I ask only that you show me the loyalty your sisters have.’

‘Mater!’ Anna is close to tears.

‘Stop sniffling!’ Her face wrinkles with contempt. ‘Your weakness disgusts me. Weakness leads to treachery. Have I not taught you to be stronger?’

Anna is too upset to speak.

Louisa finds herself torn between note-taking and intervention. If she ends it now, the Mater personality may submerge beneath the others and she could lose valuable insight into how to treat Anna.

‘Answer me!’ shouts Mater, viciously. ‘Have I not taught you to be stronger?’

Anna answers with a whimper. ‘Yes.’

‘Then you must know what I have come to do.’

There’s panic now in Anna’s voice. ‘Forgive me, I beg you. I had to run away.’ She struggles for breath. ‘I could not hurt my own sister.’

‘Your sister was treacherous. I had to make sure she would not betray us. As I have to make sure you will not.’

Anna thrashes against the bed restraints. ‘No! No! You’re hurting me, Mater!’ Her body thumps against the mattress, creating a sound like thunder. ‘Stop! Stop! You’re hurting me!’

Louisa has seen enough.

She rushes from the monitors to the room.

‘Please let me go!’

One of the wrist restraints breaks loose.

‘I cast you from the sanctity of the womb, I damn your soul to eternal exile beyond the boundary of the sisterhood.’

‘No, please, Mater! Please don’t.’

‘The jagged stone teeth of the Tarpeian Rock are too good for you. Strangulation on the Gemonian Stairs too honourable. I cast you down from a place above the clouds so that your organs and your bones will be obliterated like an ant crushed beneath a giant’s heel.’

Louisa opens the door of the electronically locked room just as the other wrist restraint breaks.

Anna falls from the bed. She is left dangling by her tethered feet, screaming in wild panic.

‘Anna, Anna, it’s okay!’

Louisa tries to lift her back on to the bed, but can’t.

‘Let me help you. You’re okay.’

She quickly releases the ankle restraints and lowers her to the ground.

Face down on the cold floor, Anna mouths three words: ‘The Tenth Book.’

Louisa kneels alongside her.

‘Shush. Be quiet now. Everything’s okay.’ She puts two fingers to the pulse point in the patient’s neck.

Anna’s body spasms.

Her eyes widen and she grabs Louisa’s arm. ‘Find… the… Tenth… Book.’

She spasms again. Then lies lifeless.

Louisa can’t detect a pulse.

Anna isn’t moving.

Her heart has stopped.